We'll Talk Later
by luvcsimiami
Summary: I haven't written fan fiction in a while but CSI Miami is just one of those shows that does it. I'm an E/C fan and this story came to me after Target Specific and is the discussion I imagined once C and E got home. I would love feedback so please review.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Yeah, I'll see you in a little while. Ok. Bye."

Snapping his phone shut Eric placed it back in his jean's pocket and turned his attention back to gathering up the files from their last case. Looking at his watch he realized it was going on 5:30. Calleigh had just finished up with her part of the case file, and called to let him know she would see him at her place. The last twenty-four hours had been intense to say the least. Not that fast-paced, high-pressure intense days were unusual for any of them, but it wasn't every day that it was discovered during the course of an investigation that the entire team was being targeted by the Russian mob.

Of course for him, being tracked by the Russian mob wasn't even an unusual occurrence. He had been targeted by them many months before because of the inquiries he had made about his real father. As tiresome as it was his days and nights had been filled with ducking and dodging them ever since. Unfortunately, for all of them the Russian mob had become like cockroaches and worse than the Mala Noche. For every one they took out or put in jail three more cropped up in Miami. He was at least glad that the rest of the team didn't have to deal with the threat alone. Living through that by himself for months on end had turned him into a bit of a paranoid insomniac. He would be the first to admit he had a temper, but there were days where he could be as easy going as the next guy. Unfortunately, that side of his temperament had become non-existent as he dealt with the stress of solving cases at work and the constant awareness that everywhere he went he was being followed, watched, hunted like some sort of animal. That fact alone had made him wary of going anywhere with friends or family just for the sake of protecting them. It had also stopped him from going after what he desired most in the world.

Turning out the lights to the lab Eric waved to a few of his co-workers as he headed to the locker room to get his stuff, still deep in thought. As he reached his locker he leaned his head against the cold metal for a few minutes, sighing deeply. He lifted his hand and pressed it to his forehead as the pounding in his head increased. Because of the bullet stuck there it seemed that most days he had the misfortune of having to walk around with a pounding throb in his head. When he realized it would probably be a permanent thing due to his injury he had learned to suffer these excruciating headaches in silence. The pain always magnified when he internalized and stress began to overwhelm him…well at least emotional stress. Stress generated by the beautiful, petite, curvaceous blonde, Calleigh Duquense. The woman he loved more than life itself. The woman he had almost lost again just that morning because of the Russians. The woman he had been angry at for most of the day. So much so he was actually taking his own sweet time about getting out of there and driving over to her place.

For the first time since the two of them had finally become an official couple he had found himself wanting to be away from her for a little while. Shaking his head, Eric moved his head away from the door, took his bag out of his locker smiling slightly as he thought that at least he was making progress. A second didn't go by that she wasn't in his thoughts. A minute never went by without him wanting to see her. So he took his not wanting to see her for even a few minutes as a good sign that he didn't have to add "obsessive psycho" to his "paranoid insomniac" status.

Heading out to his car he stole another quick glance at his watch. Thirty minutes had passed and he decided to take another half an hour and go for a run. He needed to clear his head and despite the pounding headache that grew more insistent with each passing minute he knew the exercise would help him organize his jumbled thoughts. He knew that he and Calleigh were going to talk about the picture of her and that horse trainer together. When the conversation took place he wanted to be calm and rational. For that to happen he had to get himself together in order to figure out what he was feeling and what was really behind his jealousy. Since the shooting he had developed a bad habit of internalizing his emotions. Emotions that had gotten the better of him earlier in the day and had threatened to boil over when he had seen that stupid picture. Ryan's goading remarks hadn't helped the situation and then when he saw that Calliegh still had the guy's number in her phone it was all he could do not to bite his tongue. His bad habit of internalizing had come in handy otherwise he might have said something in the heat of the moment that he would have regretted. It was bad enough that he had asked her why the guy's number was still in her phone.

He wasn't happy about his little outburst in the morgue as he knew all to well that it had come out sounding like an accusation. Unfortunately, when it came to Calleigh his more primitive instincts seemed to simmer just underneath the surface. She was his and he was hers. As far as he was concerned now that they were together he intended to do whatever it took to keep her. He didn't like another man being in the picture. It was bad enough Jake had come between them and that had taken him a long time to get over. Losing her to someone else wasn't an option, unless of course she wanted to leave him. If that ever happened he would have to find the strength to let her go, and the thought of actually having to do that brought him an almost physical pain. He had never felt like this before and while everyone else talked about love being this wonderful, joyous thing, there was also a vulnerability to it that he didn't like. He had never fallen this hard, this fast for anyone, and there were times, like today, that there was a part of him that wasn't sure if Calleigh felt the same. Then he realized that Calleigh would have never gone down this path if she wasn't as serious about their relationship as he was.

It was those moments of uncertainty that made him crazy. Always confident he had never had someone keep him on his toes like Calleigh did. It probably served him right for playing so many women for so many years. Years before he had gone through one woman after another and once the relationship was over it was over. He just moved on to the next one without really thinking about the emotional turmoil, if there was any, that he left behind. No matter how he looked at it he had been pretty arrogant and heartless in his previous flings and he wasn't proud of his actions. The one thing about himself that he wanted to forget and his memory lapses wouldn't cooperate in that area. Natalia was probably the first relationship he had been in where he had harbored a slight regret at how it had ended. If he were honest that was just because he hadn't been the one to walk away. Thankfully, the two of them had been mature enough to move past it and they had become pretty good friends in spite of it. He would like to think the second chance he had been given also included his chance to get it right in the love department. That meant he had to take the good with the bad and work out every situation as it arose. Now he had Calleigh and what he felt for her was much more than what he had ever felt for anyone…including Natalia. There was no way he would screw it up over something as trivial as an afternoon spent with a horse trainer who apparently didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things.

As he approached the track that was right outside his condo, he completed a few stretches and then set an easy pace, and resolved to remember the conclusion he had come to when he and Calleigh finally had their talk.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Calleigh threw her keys on the table by the door as she walked into her house and headed straight for the bedroom to take a quick shower and change clothes after the crazy work day that had just ended. Her job definitely wasn't run of the mill and she liked that, but there were times when she wished she could go to work and there wasn't some crazy twist to the murder case they had to figure out before they could solve the case itself. Today had to be the craziest twist any of them had encountered so far. She knew she shouldn't have been surprised but who would have thought that a home invasion would have uncovered the evidence that the team was being hunted by the Russian mob. Even worse, who would have thought that revelation would have resulted in her having to explain he rpast actions to her current boyfriend. Shaking her head at the thought she quickly redirected her mind to something else. She wasn't ready to think about that yet and so she forced her mind to concentrate on other things, like a shower and then getting dinner ready before Eric showed up.

After grabbing a change of clothes she headed into the bathroom, shed her clothes and threw them in the hamper before turning on the shower and stepping in. For the next twenty minutes she forced herself to relax by focusing on the tingling of her scalp as she washed her hair, and the glorious feel of the warm water washing the creamy soap from her skin. When she was done she turned off the shower, wrapped herself in a large fluffy towel and exited the shower. Steam from the hot water had fogged up the mirror, and as she reached down to grab another towel to wipe it down her eyes fell on Eric's things lined up so neatly on his side of the sink. She smiled and thought that his things looked as if they belonged there. Glancing over at her stuff her smile turned to a quiet laugh as she realized that he had almost as many products as she did. He loved looking and smelling great, and that had been a trait of his ever since she had known him. His toothbrush, toothpaste, facial wash, toner, two kinds of shaving lotion and after shave, three kinds of cologne, as well as a few bottles of regular lotion were neatly lined up in order one after the other on the back of the sink. It was the order of the products that sobered her and the smile slowly left her face.

He had changed so much after being shot and she knew there were things he still struggled with although he never complained and he rarely talked about them. The one thing she had noticed was his constant need to have every thing, no matter how minor, in its place. It was a memory trick, a technique to help him remember the order in which to do things. She had seen him rearrange things in the fingerprint lab and there were times when he would get quietly frantic when something was out of place. He never freaked out but because she knew him so well she could sense his agitation when things weren't where they were supposed to be. After finding what he was looking for it would take him some time to calm down and refocus. What she hated the most was that he struggled quietly and his frustration would often come out in another manner. Like it had today in the morgue when he had shown her that picture of her and Terrence.

Suddenly her mind was back on the events of the day and she decided to let them go where they would as she finished up in the bathroom, got dressed and headed for the kitchen to start dinner. As she methodically set things out and began the preparations for the meal she slammed a pot down on the stove in anger as she thought about just how much of a thorn in their side the Russian mob had become. It wasn't enough that they were doing everything they could to make Eric's life miserable. As if that goal had been too shortsighted they had decided to expand their view and pay them all some special attention. Something they wouldn't have discovered if they hadn't been investigating the home invasion attack. An attack that had left the victim severely injured but alive and for Calleigh it was the one good thing that had resulted from an otherwise horrible day. If she closed her eyes now she could still feel the plastic bag being held over her head and her breath being cut off as she struggled after being caught off guard and attacked by one of those Russian henchmen. As if almost killing her and taking her gun hadn't been enough for her to deal with, she now had to spend her evening having a discussion about something that she should have never had to explain. Even now she could the distant tone that had been in Eric's voice ever since they had talked in the morgue that afternoon. She was well aware of the fact that he had been quietly stewing ever since he had seen that stupid picture with her and Terrence. It was times like these where she wished she could get five minutes alone with that sleazy photographer. Five minutes of target practice would be all she needed to work out her aggravation at the stupid little weasel who was trying to wreak havoc in her private life. For once she was actually happier than she had ever been and she wasn't going to let some little Russian mob wannabe mess it up.

In spite of her anger at the mob she was also upset with Eric as well. No matter what had happened in the past he should have more faith in her. It had taken her so long to stop fighting what had been between them for quite a while now. She had given herself every excuse in the book about why taking their relationship to the next level was a bad idea. All of their near death experiences and Eric finally admitting how he felt about her made her realize her excuses meant nothing and she had only delayed the inevitable. Now that they were together she found herself surprised at how easily things had fallen into place. It was as if the final piece of the puzzle of her life had been missing and now everything fit. Being the independent, strong woman that she showed to the world it actually scared her just how deeply she felt for Eric. How much she hurt when he hurt, how happy she was when he was happy, and how much she hated it when thing weren't right between them. This was the love that singers sang about, and poets wrote about. What they left out was the deep vulnerability that existed when you opened yourself up to that person. For someone who had learned at an early age not to depend on anyone, especially a man, it was a vulnerability that she was learning to handle and to accept. She knew from Eric's response this afternoon that he felt the same. It was that reaction that made her realize he was just as committed as she was.

In all the years she had known him, jealousy wasn't an emotion he had ever really displayed when it came to the women in his life. The only exception where she had seen a glimpse of it had been his short lived relationship with Natalia. Even then she suspected that his upset had more to do with the fact it was Ryan that Natalia had dated after him. It had just been one more area where Eric felt Ryan had intruded. In true Eric fashion, he had gotten over it too quickly for her to think it had been anything else. Now she and Eric were making a go of it and things were much more serious and way more intense. While they focused at work and had promised each other that they would maintain their professionalism no matter what, after hours they focused all their time and attention on one another. Today had been the first day that emotions had run a little high for the both of them inside the office. If she were honest she was slightly thrilled to be the first one to witness an emotion from Eric she thought never to see in relation to herself. It let her know that he was probably feeling every bit as vulnerable as she was. At the same time, she found herself upset at the fact that somewhere along the way the complete trust that Eric had always had in her wasn't as solid as it used to be. There could be all sorts of reasons for that but she wasn't going to second guess what they were. Tonight she and Eric would clear the air and get things all out on the table because he meant too much to her for something as stupid as a photograph to come between them. It was time he understood that. She was committed to him, she was committed to them and while neither one of them had the greatest track record with relationships, things were going so great between them she made the promise to herself that she wouldn't let anything mess it up.

As she put the finishing touches on dinner and set everything low on the oven so the food would stay warm, she resolved to remember the conclusion she had come to when the two of them finally had their talk.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"You're late." Calleigh stated softly as she watched him place his keys on the table next to hers and drop his bag by the door. She met him halfway as he walked towards her, leaned down and placed a quick, light kiss on her lips. "Where have you been?"

"Sorry I'm late. I needed to clear my head so I went for a quick run, then went back to my place to take a shower and grab some clothes." He had answered as he followed her down the hall and back into the kitchen.

"Good to know." Calleigh responded as she opened the oven door and took out the plates she had warming in the oven. "And here I was thinking that you were probably just avoiding me."

Giving him a pointed look she headed into the dining room with their plates and he couldn't help but smile wryly not at all surprised that she knew exactly what he had been doing.

Turning quickly, he moved to the sink to wash and dry his hands before he reached into the cabinet above his head to grab glasses from the cabinet. He had just finished filling both glasses with ice when Calleigh walked back into the kitchen to open the refrigerator and took out the salad she had prepared to go with the meal. Eric took out the huge pitcher of iced tea she always had in there and followed her into the dining room. Setting the salad plates on the table, Calleigh took her seat at the small, but cozy table sitting directly in front of the large bay window in the room. He poured their tea and then took his seat across from her.

"This looks great." he complimented her as he prepared to dig into the juicy steak, baked potato and crispy garden salad she had fixed for their dinner.

"Thank you." She responded easily as she took a sip of her tea and studied him over the edge of her glass. He was studiously avoiding looking at her as he steadily ate his food.

"Did you ever hear from Ryan?" Calleigh asked, knowing he had called Ryan several times without getting an answer.

"No, but dispatch said he called in and told them he was out running a lead and he'd be back in later. I gave H the message. So apparently, he's fine."

"Good." Calleigh said as she picked up her fork and began to eat. Noting that Ryan wasn't a safe subject to talk about at the moment she decided to launch into a discussion about his court appearance on the last case he had closed. It was a safe, neutral topic that would keep them occupied during dinner. Normally, work conversation was restricted from their personal alone time together but she sensed he wasn't quite ready to discuss Terrance so she would let it go for now.

They talked quietly, cautiously, enjoying a short respite before the emotional maelstrom that was about to come. A steady calm settled over the room and the soft whisper of her voice blended with the deep timber of his while the steady click of silverware hitting the plates, and the slight chink of ice against glass added to the evening symphony. An hour later the meal was finished and the kitchen restored to order. Eric had just placed the last plate in the dishwasher and turned it on while Calleigh brought in the place mats from the table and carried them through to the laundry room so she could wash them later.

Retracing her steps she stopped in front of the kitchen door when she noticed Eric leaning on the cabinet, one head braced against the countertop and the other rubbing his temple. She realized that he had one of his headaches. That stance of his was a telltale sign she had noticed a few days after he had returned to work from being shot. It had been like pulling teeth but she had gotten him to tell her about them one day in the lab. He said the pain was like the lingering effects of a severe concussion. Having had a concussion she didn't need to imagine what he was talking about. As unemotional as she was she would have been howling like a baby if she had been in that much pain. He never complained about it, it was just one more thing to remind others of his injury and he hated that. She knew it was because he didn't want his colleagues to pity him or think that he was using his injury as some kind of crutch.

She wished he would at least take the painkillers he had been prescribed when his head was like this but she didn't suggest it because she knew he wouldn't. He still had a full two months prescription from his last refill and he hadn't touched them. He had told her that the last thing he needed was to add pain killer addiction to everything else he was dealing with so he chose to endure the headaches. Headaches brought on by stress and part of that problem was how much he internalized. A little fact he thought she didn't know and something she chose not to reveal that she knew just yet. He never used to refrain from letting people know exactly what he thought, especially when they had pissed him off. He wasn't usually belligerent but he was confrontational and he liked to cut to the chase, get the matter out on the table and be done with it. After he got shot, he was quieter, more thoughtful and there were only flashes of emotionalism from him. She could guess that the headache he had now had to do with the Russian mob threat and her. Calleigh knew she couldn't do anything about the Russian mob but she could at least do something about her part in the scenario.

"Eric?"

Hearing his name on her lips he turned around and realized she had been watching him. Abruptly he took his hand down from his temple and waited for her to continue with whatever it was she was about to say.

"Come on, let's get this over with." She said quietly. Calleigh turned away from him and headed into the living room. He was right behind her and took a seat on the couch while she remained standing directly in front of him with the coffee table between them.

"How about I start?" She said.

"Ok."

"What was that today?" She asked him quietly. "I mean when exactly did you stop trusting me?"

Whatever he was expecting, that question wasn't it. She had successfully caught him off guard and he knew it. Leave it to Calleigh to get right to the heart of the matter.

"Did you really think—"

"I was jealous, Calleigh." Recovering from the initial shock of her first question, he cut off what she was about to ask. "I never went that far."

"You had no reason to be jealous." She countered.

"Maybe not?" he snapped. "But ever since—"

"Ever since what, Eric?"

Eric suddenly stood up and began to pace the room. The conversation had galvanized him into action. 'God this was painful' he thought. It was one thing to talk to Calleigh as his best friend. Then he had no problem expressing himself. Talking to her as his girlfriend was a whole other issue, especially because he loved her so much. Revealing the depths of his feelings made him feel even more vulnerable and he couldn't take it if she felt sorry for him. He'd had enough of everyone's pity, including hers.

"Eric, talk to me." Calleigh said as she watched the internal struggle going on with him. "Ever since what?"

"Ever since, Jake." He finished softly. Deciding he might as well know now if they were actually going to make this work. He would put his cards right there out on the table and see how she dealt with it.

"Jake?" Calleigh asked stunned. "What does he have to do with anything?"

Staring at her as if she had grown two heads he had to take a beat before he could respond. She had just had a blonde moment and he really wanted to start screaming. He was really going to have to spell it out.

"He has everything to do with it, Calleigh." He snapped. "Look, I know that what we did before we got together is in the past and it's probably better left there, but you were with Terrance two weeks before you were with me. I mean every single time I think we're going somewhere there's some other guy in the picture I don't know about. First there was Jake. One minute you're telling me you don't know how you feel about him and the next minute you're locked together in the middle of reception. As angry as I was I knew I had to suck it up and deal with it or lose your friendship. That was hard enough to accept and I don't ever want to go through that again. Then we get a second chance and because I took a little bit of time trying to figure out exactly how to tell you how I felt you decide to hook up with your horse trainer friend. I feel like you're always looking for a reason to run from me. When I saw that picture I was angry, and it didn't help that Ryan was there with me and letting me know I had competition. I told him he didn't know what he was talking about, although I really wanted to tell him that if it was anyone else but you, I would take myself out of the running."

Calleigh was stunned to say the least. She had wanted an explanation and boy had she gotten one. She hadn't expected him to be quite that honest. Of course she shouldn't have been surprised. One thing about Eric was that when he made a commitment he never went back on it. For someone who had had girlfriends too numerous to count she could say that he had been committed to the one he was with when he was with them. There was no flirting, no eye-roaming, no cheating. When things got too serious or the attraction wore off he moved on to the next girl. Of course that had been the old Eric. The new Eric had re-evaluated his life and reorganized his priorities. He wanted a wife, a family, children. Things he had always wanted and had lost sight of because he had been having too much fun being a playboy, too busy being a cop, and too caught up in taking care of his sister before she had died to realize that his life was passing him by. One single bullet had changed all of that and here they were.

She had seen his struggle to regain some semblance of his former self. She had noticed his lack of interest in chasing woman. All he had been focused on was getting back into what was familiar at the job and regaining some semblance of normalcy in his life. It was then that their relationship had changed. Subtle though it was their eight year friendship had grown and changed into something more, something deeper, and something that Calleigh had shied away from because she had been pessimistic about the outcome. He had accused her of running from him and she couldn't deny that it was true. She had been so caught up in their growing attraction to one another that she hadn't stopped to think about the consequences until Jake had shown back up in her life. Then suddenly she was presented with a choice. She could admit now that she had been afraid, and as a result she had fallen back into old patterns and taken the easy way out, or taken herself out of the running as Eric had so bluntly put it.

Jake had been a nice diversion, something familiar that she could revisit and maybe change history. She had fooled herself into thinking that Eric's feelings were mainly gratitude and maybe infatuation. His confidence had been shot and it was taking him a long time to get it back. It was only natural that he feel something more for the person who looked out for him and tried to take care of him the best way she could. Besides that, what she had told him was true. They worked together all the time. How could they possibly make a relationship work? All of those things had been excuses. Excuses because she hadn't wanted to face the fact that for the first time in her life, she was feeling something she had never felt. She had grown to adore and love with all of her heart the man standing before her now. Instead of throwing caution to the winds and going for it she had become the practical Calleigh Duquesne and made a beeline for the wrong guy in the form of Jake Berkley once again.

Jake had been a nice physical diversion. As tacky and as tasteless as it sounded there it was. There was no denying they had a serious physical attraction to each other. They were alike in many ways, except no one could manipulate quite like Jake. Jake was fun and easygoing. He was the ultimate bad boy who liked to live on the edge. For awhile it had been fun to relive that with him but it hadn't taken long for reality to set in. Jake had proven to her once again that the bad boy part of him would always win over the part of him that wanted to be the hero. He would always make the choice to live a hair's breadth away from danger and excitement, even to the point of death because recklessness was part of his personality. Calleigh realized she couldn't live there with him. Even though he had made the last final sacrifice for her, a part of her knew it was out of guilt for disappearing without a word for months on end. He was good at undercover and Calleigh knew he loved it and would never change. Jake would live on the edge for as long as he could. If any good had come out of the relationship it was the fact that she knew that the two of them didn't have a future together. She wasn't going to twist herself up in knots wondering if he wasn't going to come home one night.

That realization had brought her back to Eric and made her realize that unlike Jake, Eric had already figured out that he couldn't live on the edge the rest of his life. It may have taken a near fatal bullet wound to make it happen, but Calleigh believed that Eric had been getting there on his own anyway. The loss of Speedle had sent him spiraling over the edge and the loss of Marisol had somehow strangely brought him back from it. The bullet had just completed a process that had already begun. Calleigh would never forget the aching emptiness she had kept hidden from everyone when she thought he was going to die. She would never forget the relief when she found out he would live, nor would she forget the profound sadness she had felt when she realized a part of who he used to be was gone forever.

Looking at him now she realized how much she had underestimated him and just how much she had hurt him in choosing Jake over him. She had been wrong in not addressing it sooner, especially when he probably felt like he was her second choice and that wasn't it at all. He loved her, loved her enough to walk away from her if that's what she wanted. She knew that but somehow the true understanding of that hadn't really sunk in for her until now. He wasn't the same man he was before. The man she had known before would have blown her off and never even considered giving her a second chance after choosing another man over him. He had pretty much just told her that just now. The fact that he loved her was why they were having this conversation. Otherwise he would have just said forget it and moved on. The man he was now had become more understanding, more patient and had simply decided to bide his time and see if he would be rewarded for his patience. Apparently, his patience had just been tested after seeing her with Terrance.

Even after her break up with Jake he had tried to keep his distance. He had loved her enough to make her aware of the fact that she wasn't just some casual diversion to run his game on while he regained his confidence. He wanted her no matter what had happened in the past. Eric was committed to this relationship, committed to them every step of the way. She bet if she checked his phone the only women she would find in the directory other than herself would be his mother, his sisters, and probably Natalia and Valera because he worked with them. While she had been hanging on to Terrance as a what? Just in case measure. Looking at it from his point of view she could understand his response to the picture and to Terrance's number in her phone. Falling in love for Eric Delko wasn't something he did every day and for a former player who was used to calling the shots she could imagine that this situation made him feel more vulnerable than he was probably willing to admit. It was definitely time to set the record straight.

"Eric, come here." She gently commanded him. "Sit down."

She had been silent so long Eric wondered if he had said too much too soon. Her sudden voice in the long silence had surprised him a bit as he had been lost in his own agonizing thoughts. Turning to face her, he realized she had taken his seat on the couch and patted the seat next to her as an invitation to join her. Sighing in resignation he took the seat she offered and simply waited.

"You're right and I'm sorry." Calleigh began. "I did run. Jake seemed the least complicated and easiest of a difficult choice."

"What is that supposed to mean?" He asked her defensively.

"It means that what I had with Jake is nothing compared to what I have with you." Calleigh countered as she pinned him with her eyes and forced him to look at her as she spoke. "Maybe the best way to explain it is your relationship with Natalia."

"That wasn't a relationship." Eric said almost ashamed to admit the fact that what he and Natalia had shared had been nothing but a physical attraction. A serious physical attraction that could have turned into more, but a physical attraction nonetheless. It had sparked quickly, raged for a while, and then fizzled almost as quickly as it had started. One scare had done them in and they had both backed off although she had done so quicker than he had.

"Exactly." Calleigh agreed. "Jake was a diversion, someone easy going and uncomplicated."

"Ok. So I'm not easygoing and uncomplicated." Eric stated dryly. "Thanks."

"Eric, stop it." Calleigh snapped. "You know what I mean. I'm saying that we were just too much at the time. It was too intense and I was so afraid it would mess up our friendship. Jake just---"

"Let you know what he wanted." Eric finished for her, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice as he remembered that kiss in the middle of the lab. That's an image he wished to God he had never seen and would love to forget as well.

"Something like that." Calleigh agreed, as she tried to read his expression.

"Ok, so what about your horse trainer friend?" Eric asked. "Was he a diversion too?"

"No." Calleigh told him. "He was someone who showed me he was interested and didn't mind telling me so. You couldn't figure out how to tell me you wanted me and I was beginning to think what I had originally thought was right. "

"I told you once how I felt and you chose a diversion." Eric said quietly, "It wasn't as easy to find the words the second time."

"Eric, I never would have hurt you for anything in the world and you know that." Calleigh stressed softly. "Not then and not now. Terrance is a nice guy who offered to take me horse back riding. Something I used to do when I was at home and hadn't done in years. It was a nice afternoon with a nice guy, that's all. You and I are together now and you know I would never do anything to jeopardize that. You should trust me and if you do it won't matter if there are ten guys' numbers in my cell phone. "

"I do trust you." Eric said. "I never stopped. I just don't like—"

"Being vulnerable." Calleigh finished quietly. "Guess what I don't either. So we're even."

"Yeah, I guess so." Eric agreed. "I guess I should apologize."

"Only if you've done something you think you should apologize for."

"Well, in that case I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted." Reaching out her hand she grabbed his hand and began to softly trace his fingers with one of her own. "You scared me you know. For a minute I had flashbacks of John Hagen and I didn't like it."

"A bullet in my brain doesn't make me imbalanced, Calleigh." Eric muttered. "I was jealous not psychotic. There is a difference. I was jealous of Jake, but I didn't try to shoot the guy and neither did I have one thought of killing myself."

"That's good to know." Calleigh said. "I'll try to remember that in the future. I need you to try and remember something as well."

"What's that?"

"I love you and I would never hurt you."

"I would never hurt you either." Eric responded softly. "And I love you too."

"Good, because immigration threats or not I wouldn't have married you otherwise."

For the first time that evening she saw that infamous Eric Delko smirk as he let go of her hand in order to pull her across his lap. Looking in her eyes he let his hand rest lightly on her hip before he leaned in for a long, slow kiss.

"You sure about that?" He whispered softly as he trailed kisses from her mouth to her ear.

"Pretty sure." Calleigh whispered back as she slid off of his lap. "You may have to refresh my memory as there doesn't seem to be another reason that's coming to me right now."

Eric laughed as he stood up and followed her into the bedroom.

"Well, in that case let me see what I can do."

The End.

.


End file.
